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Thursday federal headlines - March 6, 2014

Thursday - 3/6/2014, 8:28am EST

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal
Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp discuss throughout the show each day. The
Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the
stories you hear on the air.

One of the shoemaker's children is asking for a bigger allowance. Comptroller
General Gene Dodaro testifies in favor of a 4 percent budget increase
for 2015. That would let the Government Accountability Office restore shrunken
staffing levels. GAO funding is already on the mend. This year it will operate on
$505 million, up substantially from 2013. For next year, Dodaro is seeing $525
million. He tells a House appropriations subcommittee, the agency's staff had
fallen to levels not seen since 1935. Next year, he would like to get the
headcount to full staffing, about 3,200 people. Dodaro says GAO would use some of
the increase to improve computer systems and fix up its Massachusetts Avenue
headquarters. (Federal News Radio)

Top federal scientists and experts could get a bump in
pay. The Office of Personnel Management publishes a final rule to bring
salaries for employees who are Sls for senior-level, or STs, for scientific or
professional, more in line with what the government pays senior executive service
members. The pay raise has to be backed up by a performance-based assessment. OPM
proposed the rule in 2011, based on a 2008 law. (Federal Register)

In a repeat performance, a former IRS official pleaded the fifth rather than
testify to the House Oversight and Governmental Affairs Committee. Lois Lerner is
at the center of a controversy in which the IRS held up tax exempt status
applications from conservative groups. She resigned last year after pleading her
rights against self-incrimination. Yesterday she appeared again, only to refuse to answer questions from chairman
Darrell Issa. Afterwards, Issa said the investigation might stall without
testimony from Lerner. Her lawyer says the hearing was too partisan for Lerner to
get a fair shake. (Associated Press)

Eight Democratic Senators joined 44 Republicans to block an Obama nominee to a key Justice
Department job. Attorney Debo Adegbile had been named to run the civil rights
division. It opened up last year when Thomas Perez became secretary of labor.
Opponents of Adegbile cited his Supreme Court argument in favor of convicted cop-
killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. President Obama condemned the vote. He says representing
an unpopular defendant should not disqualify a lawyer from high office. Adegbile
spent much of his career at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. His
nomination was opposed by the National Fraternal Order of Police. (Federal News
Radio)

The Senate votes today on
whether to strip military commanders of their power over sexual assault
prosecutions. The Pentagon opposes the bill. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says
commanders must be responsible for their troops' conduct. The measure would let
military prosecutors, rather than commanders, decide whether to pursue courts-
martial for the most serious sexual charges. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has
sponsored the bill. She says enough Senators support her bill to break a
filibuster. (Associated Press)

An Army general accused of sexually assaulting a junior officer will plead guilty to three of four charges
against him. Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair maintains innocence on the most serious
charge of forced sex. His accuser is a female captain with whom he had an affair.
Adultery is a crime in the military. His defense lawyers say his accuser lied
under oath about her handling of an iPhone containing photos and text messages.
Sinclair's lawyer says the general will plead guilty to having improper
relationships with two other female Army officers and to committing adultery.
He'll admit violating orders by possessing pornography in Afghanistan. And he'll
admit to conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman. Sinclair is the former
deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne. He faces life in prison if convicted of the
remaining sexual assault charges. (Associated Press)

The CIA is looking into allegations that officers spied on
Senate Intelligence Committee members. Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein says
the agency inspector general has opened an investigation. The allegations concern
whether during the George W. Bush Administration, the CIA monitored Senate staff
using CIA computers to access top-secret documents about agency detention and
interrogation programs. CIA Director John Brennan says the Senate claims are
"wholly unsupported by the facts." (Associated Press)

A group representing U.S. diplomats says it will sue the State Department over documents on
President Barack Obama's choices for ambassadorships. The American Foreign Service
Association gives the department until the close of business today to comply with
an open-records request. The group wants to see candidates' "certificates of
demonstrated competence." AFSA says it's concerned about certain nominees'
qualifications. A handful of nominees embarrassed themselves at their Senate
confirmation hearings by getting facts wrong about their countries of destination.
The choices were high-dollar campaign fundraisers for President Obama.
(Associated Press)

A key engineer of the Affordable Care Act is resigning from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Bloomberg Businessweek reports, Gary Cohen leaves his job as director of the
Center for Consumer and Information and Insurance Oversight at the end of the
month. That's also the first open enrollment deadline. Cohen's office monitors
private insurers and helps states with their online marketplaces. CMS
Administrator Marilyn Tavenner credits Cohen with leading the policy work on the
health care exchanges. (Bloomberg Businessweek)